The Toll – Neal Shusterman

★★★★★

 Looks like they are REALLY serious about no spoilers… so I’ll just say – this was everything.

Literally blown away, socks knocked off.

Everything.

My Review- now that the book is out

…can’t see why I should concern myself with humankind at all.

Rowan and Citra were last seen three years ago, at the sinking of the Scythe island.

Nearly all of the scythes have passed away, and any witnesses know well enough what narrative they should follow.

Scythe Goddard is back (well, in a way) and despite the impulsiveness of his new body, he is bound and determined to expand the reaches of his power.

Meanwhile Grayson Tolliver is the only human on earth that the Thunderhead is willing to talk to and together they must combat Scythe Goddard’s reach.

Except, the Thunderhead cannot work against a scythe, it must find a way to guide the unguideable.

And Scythe Farraday finds himself increasingly restless on an abandoned island (well, except for his assistant)…but that island won’t be lonely for much longer.

There is a hint of change on the wind, and it’s coming ever closer.

You can’t expose a lie without first shattering the will to believe it. That is why leading people to truth is so much more effective than merely telling them.

Ahhh. This book was SO dang good.

I really love how Shusterman wove together all of these competing storylines in such a way that I never wanted to speed through one of them to “get to the good part” – they were ALL good parts.

I especially loved Citra’s arc – her character started off so different from where it ended but it all happened so naturally that I was in absolute love with her “grown-up” self.

I definitely think Rowan should’ve gotten a bit more screen-time. He’s one of my favorites, and I would’ve loved to see him in more scenes. But ah, well. Can’t have everything!

I do wish that the time-frame was a little clearer in this one.

I did struggle a bit to follow at first because we start at one time, jump around a bit, and eventually all the characters end up together. (Note: I don’t mean time travel, just the one set is at present, another storyline is telling us what happened a year ago, etc).

It made sense in the end, but wow was I surprised the first time that happened!

Overall, I am incredibly pleased with this series – and that ending! I definitely didn’t see it coming!!

With many thinks to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and Neal Shusterman for sending me a free, ARC in exchange for an honest review. All quotes come from a published copy, NOT from my ARC.

Interested in this one from Neal Shusterman? Buy it here:  Amazon